I want to bond claude and miffy with liliac and shadow how do i go about it? i was reading in a rabbit book the other night the probs with bonding are usually with the females,well i have a problem then as theres 3 and only claude!
do i introuduce them all together or 1 at a time?
liliac and shadow were only spayed about 2-3 weeks ago do i need to leave it a while longer?

Bertie

01-12-2004, 09:26 PM

Do it all together. Do it the same way as you would for bonding two bunnies, just treat each pair as though it was one bunny. There's a lot more scuffling to sort out, and it's MUCH scarier, but separating them from their bonded partner will just cause additional stress.

Our four are the same as yours. We bonded Chips and Cassidy to the two lop sisters. Chips mostly cowered in the corner while Cassidy went bonkers and tried to kill the girls. They were, fortunately, very submissive to her. Neutral territory is going to be an absolute godsend if you can find it.

The thing we found that worked best was putting all four in the boot together, with their carry cases open, then driving them round to Andi's mum's where we had a run in the garden. Dumped them all in the run for a couple of hours and then drove them back in the boot.

In the car, all four would huddle together in one carry case. The run was completely neutral, so there'd be some fighting but mostly it was a standoff. When we got home we'd try leaving them together, but the fighting would kick off immediately. Eventually, we got to the point where they were grooming each other in the run, snuggling in the boot, but fighting in the house and we just had to bite the bullet and let them have the final power struggle in the house.

Even now Cassidy still has to have the odd nip at the two girls. Nothing serious, just a bit of fur pulling, but all four will snuggle up together quite happily. I think she's just particularly aggressive and needs to give them constant reminders of how much she should be feared.

bluebunny

01-12-2004, 09:30 PM

Where do they all live now?

luvabun

02-12-2004, 02:04 AM

I want to bond claude and miffy with liliac and shadow how do i go about it? i was reading in a rabbit book the other night the probs with bonding are usually with the females,well i have a problem then as theres 3 and only claude!
?

You must have nerves of steel!!!!! I'd be getting the valium in already. And the rescue remedy. And the.....

Bertie

02-12-2004, 07:22 AM

Where do they all live now?

They all share the living room. With four bunnies in one room you can probably imagine the mess. :? At night we separate them back into their original pairs. We did think about joining the cages together to make one big one, but they're right next to each other anyway, and it doesn't seem to do any harm to separate them. If anything the lops seem to enjoy a bit of peace away from the dominance of Cassidy. As soon as the cages are opened, they all boing out and go straight in to the cage they weren't sleeping in to have a good sniff about. There's no ownership of the cages as we shut them into whichever one they hop into first, or whichever one they're closest too. On the weekend, when they're out all day, all four will flop together in the corner of one cage. Awww.

Towsbuns

02-12-2004, 10:53 AM

My problems have been with the two males - the females have been fine. The first day - Hobo and Azlan literally boxed like hares but things seemed to calm down - and I left them with access to each other in the bunny shed. However, after a couple of weeks Hobo and Azlan had a major fight in the garden leaving Azlan with several bite wounds which are now just about healed. Looking back, I feel that as the bunny shed was relatively new when we had the two new buns - Hobo and Honey are more prepared to share that with Azlan and Harmony but the garden is a different matter. I currently have them separated again and they alternate access to the bunny shed - one pair hutch only, other pair hutch and shed.
Azlan being attacked really knocked his confidence as he seemed very wary with me, but he is now back to wanting his cuddles again so I will restart the bonding again soon with brief spells together over the winter, so, hopefully, they can all have the run of the garden together in the summer.